Petronas confirms meeting over PDA without Morshidi

KUCHING: National petroleum corporation Petronas has clarified that its board members did convene on the move to file court application to declare it has ownership on Sarawak’s oil and gas resources by virtue of the Petroleum Development Act 1974.

Due to the urgency of the matter, the board members had to meet without another board member State Secretary Tan Sri Datuk Amar Morshidi Abdul Ghani who was overseas performing the Umrah, Petronas said in a statement delivered to The Borneo Post.

“We refer to recent media reports concerning one of Petronas’ board members, Sarawak State Secretary Tan Sri Datuk Amar Mohamad Morshidi Abdul Ghani’s remarks.

“The Chief Minister of Sarawak on May 16 reiterated that from July 1, 2018, all O& G parties operating in Sarawak are required to comply with all state laws, among others, the Oil Mining Ordinance (1958).

“Due to the urgency of the matter, Petronas had to convene a special Board Meeting on May 31, to deliberate on this matter.

“The Board then decided to proceed with the filing at the Federal Court, on June 4.”

When contacted, Morshidi said there were no board papers at the last Petronas board meeting on May 22 which he attended.

“I was only informed on the 9th June upon my return from Umrah that they did call a special board meeting at a very short notice.

“All information on the meeting and the papers were not accessible to me while I was at Umrah.

“Therefore, I was not privileged at that time to know that there was a board meeting on 31st May.

“That’s my explanation to Petronas. That’s why they explain in their statement.

“The board paper is only available online through their special meeting Ipad and cannot be accessed by anyone else which of course logically I don’t bring (the Ipad) for Umrah,” he said.